More than 10,000 armed forces personnel not medically fit for war, government says

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The figures come after defence secretary John Healey suggested the UK’s armed forces are in such a dire state that the country is not ready to deter an invasion. In his most damning assessment yet of the state of the UK’s defence capability, John Healey said the military could conduct “operations”, but would be unable to stop an enemy from invading. open image in gallery Defence secretary John Healey is battling to turn around Britain’s depleted armed forces Former armed forces minister James Heappey said he believes that a “good chunk” of the more than 10,000 members of the navy, army and air force who are medically unfit to be deployed are classed as so because they have not had a dental check-up. “Secondly, there is a reality about the nature of some of these injuries that mean that they couldn’t deploy to go on a discretionary operation today in peacetime, but if war was to come, then they would be absolutely able to go and fight because the needs of the nation would rather trump that rather discretionary take on their medical capacity.” Mr Heappey said some armed forces personnel were needed to go to back-office jobs, including in the National Cyber Force.